Injured Knee Lower Body Resistance Training?

HeyJudii

It's a 6 year old injury, and after extensive PT, it works fine. Usually.
I did fine with my resistance training through 2014, but slacked off and gained a bunch of weight back over the years.
Fast forward to 2018 and I am back on track, but this go-round, my knee is protesting my former routine of squats, plies and reverse leg lifts (bench).
Insurance & time permitting, I will return to my PT to get a routine, but until then, any tips on weight training that doesn't include squats or lunges? My knee just can't handle them anymore without lingering pain.

brettfreeman731

Have you tried box squats? They range of motion stops usually short before knee pain might start?

Also, you can’t go wrong with a leg Press if possible, Romanian deadlifts, leg extensions, leg curls and calves!

mom23mangos

I'm not sure where your pain occurs, but I'm just recovering from a fractured kneecap and I was pretty limited in what lower body exercises I could do. I pretty much just stuck with Romanian deadlifts, good mornings and straight leg extensions while I was recovering. I can put more weight on it now, but still having to go lighter on squats/leg press and seated leg extensions. I don't even what to think about lunges yet. So basically, try more hip hinge movements rather than knee.

HeyJudii

Thank you for the replies. Some of these I will have to look for YouTube videos, since I am not familiar with them, but this gives me hope. I need to start working on recomp, especially for my lower body.

The pain sometimes occurs during my sets, and then lingers on for a couple of hours. It isn't severe, but it is uncomfortable and causes me concern that I may be causing further damage due to inflamed tissues.

Note: my cardio includes hiking and running, both of which I love, and have been the primary reason (along with decreased calorie consumption) I have lost the weight. I do get some residual pain after a run/hike, but the real pain comes from the repeated squatting and knee bending for lunges and plies. The reverse leg lifts were approved by my PT, and they don't seem to cause the same problems.

GiddyupTim

I have had ACL replacement surgery and have a torn meniscus.
I am not sure I am the person who should be commenting because I honestly believe I have helped my knee to heal with regular running...But
That said, somebody mentioned box squats and the leg press machine. I think when you have a knee that hurts -- a knee you instinctively protect -- you do yourself a disservice doing bilateral exercises. You are going to favor the uninjured knee anyway, and your injured knee is going to get weaker, just with daily activities and your hiking, etc.
I stuck with mostly single-leg exercises as I eased in to my rehab and recovery.
I did lots of yoga early on, because there are single-leg poses that you just hold -- an isometric exercise (no pounding or uncomfortable movement) that kept my injured leg engaged and helped to maintain its strength.
Then I walked stairs, progressing to running stairs. (That's a one-leg-at-a-time movement, of course.)
Then I started doing box step-ups, in time, as my knee improved, adding dumbbells for extra weight.
I don't know if that helps to answer what you are asking or what. But I hope so.
I really found that the yoga poses -- and other isometrics like wall sits -- were quite helpful in maintaining the strength in my injured knee when movement was painful.

BobbyTone

Do you have access to a leg press? Try leg presses with your feet positioned higher on the platform rather than lower. They helped me out when I was recovering from knee pain.

billkansas

I had a shoulder injury last year so frankly, focused on squat and deadlift. If you can't do legs without knee pain- go crazy on your uppers. Go see a doctor about the knee. I had an MRI on my shoulder but it didn't help except it told me I didn't have a rotator cuff tear (was glad to at least rule that out). I kept trying to rehabilitate my shoulder via lots of light dumbbell laterals and stuff like that. It wasn't until I gave my shoulder months of rest that it actually got better. I know, this is contrary to the whole PT thing. I thought I could rehabilitate it but it turned out the only rehabilitation happened when I quit aggravating it... took months of rest.

Some soft tissue injuries will never heal on their own- the reason you should start with a consult by a doctor. Rule this possibility out first.

The good news is you just got a partial pass on "leg day". In my case, my squat went through the roof during the months where I was not able to bench press or press- due to my shoulder. Sometimes you have to just work with what you got. Sounds like you can go crazy on uppers while you baby your knee. Could be worse.

HeyJudii

GiddyupTim wrote: »

I have had ACL replacement surgery and have a torn meniscus.
I am not sure I am the person who should be commenting because I honestly believe I have helped my knee to heal with regular running...But
That said, somebody mentioned box squats and the leg press machine. I think when you have a knee that hurts -- a knee you instinctively protect -- you do yourself a disservice doing bilateral exercises. You are going to favor the uninjured knee anyway, and your injured knee is going to get weaker, just with daily activities and your hiking, etc.
I stuck with mostly single-leg exercises as I eased in to my rehab and recovery.
I did lots of yoga early on, because there are single-leg poses that you just hold -- an isometric exercise (no pounding or uncomfortable movement) that kept my injured leg engaged and helped to maintain its strength.
Then I walked stairs, progressing to running stairs. (That's a one-leg-at-a-time movement, of course.)
Then I started doing box step-ups, in time, as my knee improved, adding dumbbells for extra weight.
I don't know if that helps to answer what you are asking or what. But I hope so.
I really found that the yoga poses -- and other isometrics like wall sits -- were quite helpful in maintaining the strength in my injured knee when movement was painful.

I was hoping to hear from those that had an injury and were working through it, so your advice was very helpful!

HeyJudii

BobbyTone wrote: »

Do you have access to a leg press? Try leg presses with your feet positioned higher on the platform rather than lower. They helped me out when I was recovering from knee pain.

This was one of my PT exercises so this is a go!

SonyaCele

when i went through all my knee injury (acl tear and replace) i stuck to upper body machines at the gym. I only did free weight upper body once my knee was healed enough so there was no pain or risk of tweaking it. the machines kept my body steady with zero pressure on my knees and i got decent workouts. I just did the simple knee leg exercises that the PT gave me and slowly incorporated squats and deadlifting back in when he said i could. I will never lunge again, it always causes pain even years after my surgery. I wear tight knee sleeves at the gym, they really help by keeping all my knee parts lined up and keeping my knees warm. You may also try some TRX exercises, they help with some stability and let you do exercises you couldnt otherwise do without the balance and assistance.